For
the past eight years, Garcia’s mother, who had lived in the U.S. for 21 years,
had routinely checked in with immigration officials and was allowed to walk
free because she was not considered a priority for deportation. But on
Wednesday, she went to a check-in at the federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement office in downtown Phoenix on and never returned. ICE officials
detained her and deported her hours later because she was caught using a fake
Social Security number during a raid at the water park where she worked. She
was sent to Nogales, Mexico.

Speaking
to reporters, her attorney Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado said he believes that
executive orders recently signed by President Donald Trump led to her
deportation.

“I
think it’s unfair that they just took her away just because she was working in
order to support us,” Garcia said at the press conference as she stood in front
of her father and brother.

Jaqueline Rayos
García, 14, speaking at a press conference in Phoenix an hour after she learned
her mother had been deported to Mexico.

She
told reporters her heart sunk when she learned she had to pack her mother’s
suitcase.

“No
one should go through their mother’s clothes and think oh, is she going to need
this or that,” Garcia said. “No one, no one, should go to through the pain of
packing [their mother’s] suitcase.”

She
continued: “It’s just sad to see what this world has come to, especially with
the new president we have now.”

In
a statement sent to Fusion, an ICE spokesperson said: “Ms. [García de Rayos’]
immigration case underwent review at multiple levels of the immigration court
system, including the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the judges held she did
not have a legal basis to remain in the U.S.”

Garcia’s
mother is one of the estimated eight million undocumented immigrants who have
suddenly become priorities for deportation under the Trump administration–more
than five times the number of immigrants the Obama administration targeted.

“I’m
here and I’m going to keep on fighting for my mom and other families that are
going through the same thing,” Garcia said at the press conference.